Senior Banquet

Commencement Ceremony

Support our graduating seniors at this year's commencement ceremony, featuring student and faculty speakers, awards, and guest speaker Damon Bayles '96. The community is also invited to a reception at the Capricorn dining room directly following the commencement. Food and beverages served.

This Year's Commencement Speaker:

Damon Bayles, PsyD

After graduation from CVA in 1996, Damon attended Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island where he majored in English Literature with a focus in Queer Theory and was a four-year varsity oarsman on the national championship-winning Brown Men’s Crew Team. During his time as an oarsman, he medaled in many regional and national championship races. He also had the distinction as Brown's first – and only – openly gay male athlete to compete on any sports team. Damon returned to his hometown of New York City after graduation from Brown in the spring of 2000 and began working in marketing and public relations for Chelsea Piers, a 30-acre sports and entertainment complex on the Hudson River. After several years of working in sports marketing, he returned to school and pursued his doctorate in clinical psychology at the Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology of Yeshiva University. He completed his pre-doctoral training at Columbia University Medical Center/New York Presbyterian Hospital, and his post-doctoral fellowship in health psychology at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center/Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He is currently living in New York and works privately with individuals, couples and groups, specializing in work with gay men, HIV, addiction and trauma. In 2009, when it became legal to do so, he married his husband, Clinton Kelly, at their home in Connecticut; they currently live in New York City and Connecticut with their dog, Mary.